3 of the best earbuds for travel — all rated 5-star buys by our Audio Editor

Heading off on holiday? You’ll probably want to arm yourself with a good pair of earbuds. Even if you didn’t want to use them for city mooching or poolside relaxing, they’ll almost certainly come in handy during those long hours riding on planes, trains, and buses.

At TechRadar, our audio expects have tested hundreds of pairs of headphones, and they know exactly what to look for to you keep you, and your ears, happy. And it just so happens that right now, three of the very best headphones for travel are discounted in the Prime Day sales. All of these have been personally tested by our esteemed Audio Editor Becky Scarrott, and every pair scored a perfect five stars — and that is not a score we are giving out lightly.

Let’s take a look…

First up, the Nothing Ear (a) Wireless Ear Buds, which for me are the standouts, because they’re both very good and very affordable. I personally find it stressful to have any of my pricier gadgets with me when I go away; I want headphones that no one’s going to want to nick, and which aren’t going to be too pricey to replace if I leave them in a hotel room. Becky calls these headphones “a sure-fire hit”, with shout-outs for the noise cancellation, sound quality, comfort and battery life, all of which she says are far better than you’d expect at this price point.

Happier spending a bit more on your buds, and keeping a closer eye on them on your travels? Consider one of the following two options… First up are the second-gen Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds. The main reason we recommend these for travel is because the noise cancellation is second to none. Becky writes: “These buds are the most sonically exuberant listen I’ve heard to date in this type of form factor, a fact only enhanced by their rock-solid, near-impenetrable active noise cancellation (ANC), which you can usefully tweak on a slider when creating Bose’s hugely successful ‘Modes’.”

Finally, we have the Bowers & Wilkins Pi8. Becky was blown away by the “incredible levels of detail and dynamism” and called these “a highly competent set of earbuds and a joy to wear”. They’re also especially great for using on flights, because you can plug the case’s USB-C port into the headphone jack on an in-flight entertainment system, and it’ll work as a wireless audio transmitter. Like the Bose buds, the ANC is also great — ideal for blocking out noisy fellow travellers, and the drone of a plane engine. More importantly, they manage to nix background sound without creating a too-tight seal that can lead of painful eardrum pressure.